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US 2017/0247014 A1Published application
Spring-assist lock and release lower leg front-end stiffener
AssigneeFord Global Technologies, LLC
InventorsS.M. Iskander Farooq, Srinivasan Sundararajan, James Chih Cheng, Mohammed Omar Faruque, Dean M. Jaradi
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A vehicle front-end stiffener includes a hinge bracket pivotally coupled to a support bracket. The hinge bracket supports a stiffener beam. A spring engages the support bracket and the hinge bracket biasing the stiffener beam in a deployed position. A moving element in a locking mechanism can retractably interlock the hinge bracket when a vehicle exceeds a threshold speed to maintain the stiffener beam in the deployed position.
Claims18
A vehicle front end stiffener comprising:
- a support bracket;
- a hinge bracket pivotally coupled to the support bracket;
- a stiffener beam supported by the hinge bracket;
- and
- a spring between the support bracket and the hinge bracket biasing the stiffener beam in a deployed position.
2 more elements
A vehicle comprising:
- a support bracket;
- a hinge bracket pivotally coupled to the support bracket and pivotable relative to the support bracket between a deployed position and an undeployed position;
- a stiffener beam supported by the hinge bracket;
- a locking mechanism moveable between a locked position engaged with at least one of the support bracket and the hinge bracket and an unlocked position disengaged with the one of the support bracket and the hinge bracket;
- and
- a controller programmed to move the locking mechanism to a locked position when the vehicle travels above a threshold speed.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.